MY LIFE

My Life

Another really long story. But I enjoyed this tale.

You learn a lot about Russian society. Born a noble you have to act like a noble. You don't go around painting roofs. Unless of course you are Poloznev the son of the architect.

He decides to do things his way. He finds most of society corrupted. Wants no cushy boring noble work that does no one any good. He is a rebel. And society looks down on him when he decides to become a workman.

His father disowns him -- which is fine by him. Poloznev the architect represents everything the son despises. He is a lousy architect who builds homes which suffocate people.

Ah, yes freedom. And that's what this story is all about.

The freedom to decide what life you are going to live. And essentially most of Chekhov stories deal with this theme. Society expects you to act a certain way and that certain way may not be what you want. And you have a choice of conforming to what society dictates and enduring your misery or rebel and live the life you want and the hell with what society thinks. Chekhov seems to advocate for the latter.

But it's not that simple. You may decide to live a life of freedom and still not be happy. Take a look at Masha. Portrayed as a woman who does what she pleases. But if you do what you please and not think about the consequences of your actions -- well that kind of narcissistic life may bring you some kind of satisfaction but at the expense of others.

Masha plays like she champions the peasants and marries Poloznev but it's all a game to her. She is just doing it to broaden her horizon -- sort of like some in today's society go and do different things to find themselves. They may try yoga or spirituality or volunteering in a soup kitchen -- all for the goal of self-improvement.

When push comes to shove -- Masha despises the peasants and the life of the worker and flees back to her pampered life. Masha, Chekhov implies,  will never be truly satisfied because she only cares for herself. She has freedom and nothing else.

Poloznev has freedom and commitment. He doesn't make quick judgements. He sees the peasants for what they are but he also admires that they "believed the chief thing on earth was truth and justice."

Poloznev sees the hypocrisy of society -- all these intellectuals doing intellectual activities and what does it get them. He instead admires a fine carpenter or a good painter -- they do things that are real -- and don't pretend to be anything they are not. ( Just a side note -- look at Richard Feynman's book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character" -- a scientist who looks at the issue of actually doing and knowing things.)

This is also a story of family. More precisely how a father's dominance can affect his children. The son beaten constantly by the father becomes a loner and an outsider. Poloznev's sister Kleopatra who also lives under the thumb of the father and is totally miserable. She finally finds love with a married man who has kids and she is rejected by society and dies giving birth. Using harsh methods to keep order in the end doesn't work. You can't completely control the human heart and people will find a way to escape tyranny -- good or bad.

Going back to truth and justice -- that is a rare quality in any society and mostly we put up with lies and deceit -- so that when truth and justice actually show up nobody knows what to do with it. And if you choose to live a life of truth and justice you must be prepared for rejection and criticism. Nobody wants to be showed up. The liar hates the truth teller.

Once I worked in a store where the manager was a cheat and I pointed out to him that what he was doing was not right -- and sure enough I became the bad guy -- the one who wanted to ruin the system -- the one who posed danger and eventually I was forced to resign. So it goes. Society has rules and those rules favor those who have the power and they don't like rebels or people who want change.

Poloznev doesn't want to change society but he refuses to go along with what he considers are corrupt ways so he changes his life and does things his way -- and achieves a modicum of contentment. Which is better than most.

This story revisits the peasant theme which I suppose was popular at the time -- as it is today -- the peasant might today be the homeless or the poor -- and people make judgements about what is best to help them -- some argue for government help and others argue that they have to help themselves and right now -- 2011 in America -- we are having this precise argument.

The government, most in the political right believe,  should not be in the business of helping those less fortunate because this only spoils them and enables them to be lazy and unproductive -- let them help themselves if they want or if they are too ignorant to do that -- well -- let them suffer seems to be their stance.

And on the left -- they want a government that takes care of the poor and is a strong presence for insuring equal opportunity and creating a society where the rich don't dominate everything. Even if we have to pay high taxes and burden ourselves with government regulations.

I suppose that in one fashion or another that same argument was being played out in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century. You have the whole scene with the the school that Masha builds and whether or not the peasants can actually gain something from being educated. The scene when the school finally gets built and peasants give Masha respect and thanks is quite touching and speaks quite favorably for the character of the peasant and unfortunately also illustrates the selfishness of Masha. If she was really interested in aiding the peasants this was a good beginning instead she saw this as a farewell. Her life wasn't going to be burdened with charity -- she has places to go -- people to see. 

Another fine scene is when Kleopatra tries to do some acting and instead has a nervous breakdown. Art and self-expression as the cure for all that ails. Not in this case. (The relationship between Misail and Kleopatra reminds me a bit of Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie and the relationship between Tom and Laura -- controlled not by their father but by their mother.)

My Life reveals that a life has many dimensions and Chekhov here does justice to its complexity.